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Chapter 60
The Hammer
“I just managed to escape from that monster, and now you want me to go back to the Count’s residence? I don’t want to.”
“What exactly is that monster whispering?”
“He told me to run away when he gave me the chance. So I just ran when the monster let me go. Let me tell you again, that monster is indescribably terrifying, Head Butler Aden.”
“I can’t understand what there is to be afraid of in that mere illegitimate child.”
Aden felt a sense of strangeness, even unfamiliarity, at Julie’s description of Lorencia.
“That monster makes a chill run down your spine, shows you what death is by reflecting it in his eyes, and then whispers death into your ear. I never want to experience the death that monster shows me again.”
Aden pleaded with Julie until the end to return to the Count’s residence for Ilina’s sake, but she remained unconvinced. On the contrary, she even uttered incomprehensible words about the monster showing mercy and telling her to run.
He simply couldn’t persuade her.
After meeting Julie, Aden returned and received a letter that had arrived from the Imperial Palace. The letter was from Lorencia to Ilina.
Aden swiftly went up the stairs to deliver the letter to Ilina. In front of Ilina’s room, he lightly brushed off his uniform. After double-checking the letter and the knife to open the envelope on the silver tray, Aden straightened his posture, knocked twice, and said, “It’s Aden.”
There was no answer from inside the room. Aden knocked three more times in succession. Finally, when he said, “A letter has arrived from the Imperial Palace,” during the last knock, Ilina’s reply, “Come in,” was heard from inside.
He turned the doorknob and entered carefully. In the time he hadn’t seen her, Ilina’s face had become gaunt beyond words.
Aden presented the silver tray with the envelope, the knife, and the letter to Ilina.
Ilina stared at the letter Aden had placed before her. Then, without using the letter opener, she nervously tore the envelope open, pulled out the letter, and read it. After finishing the letter, Ilina turned her gaze to Aden.
“You said it came from the Imperial Palace?”
“Yes, Miss Ilina.”
She tore the letter she was holding and threw it on the floor irritably. Watching the letter pieces scatter like snowflakes, the corners of Ilina’s mouth gradually turned upward.
“How dare that monster ignore me.”
Ilina’s pale face began to turn bright red. Her life as the dazzling flower of high society. The happy days with Ruans. The enjoyable days with Julie. Her affectionate father. Her beloved mother. Everything was ruined.
No matter how much she thought about it, the cause of everything turning into a complete mess was that monster, ‘Lorencia’.
“I’ll drag him back to the Count’s residence somehow and make his life more miserable than before.”
Until the monster who didn’t know his place learned it.
The room Ilina entered, guided by a maid upon arriving at the Imperial Palace, was a modest drawing-room. A tea table was set upon a soft rug laid in the center. As Ilina sat on the sofa, a servant brought in a trolley and set out light refreshments, various fruits, and cocoa to drink on the table.
Soon after, Lorencia entered the drawing-room accompanied by Tayshar.
Ilina glared sharply at Lorencia. Tayshar looked down coldly at Ilina, wary of her.
“Have you been well? Ilina.”
Lorencia, sitting on the opposite sofa, spoke cheerfully.
“It’s time you returned to the Count’s residence, Lorencia.”
Ilina spoke, suppressing her rising irritation.
“What a shame. I have no intention of returning to the Count’s residence.”
“Have you forgotten that your place is the Count’s residence, not the Imperial Palace?”
Lorencia laughed lightly at Ilina’s provocative words.
“So, about that. Crown Prince Ruans has given me a task.”
“A task?”
“Crown Prince Ruans told me to make public the letter you sent to Young Master Loriols.”
“Make the letter public? That can’t happen!”
“You know that Young Master Loriols is dead, right?”
“I heard the news that he was murdered by a robber who broke into his mansion. But what does that have to do with the letter?”
“You might have heard the reason for Loriols’s death was a burglar, but the truth is different.”
“What are you trying to say to me? Why do you keep bringing up that dead pervert!”
“The culprit who killed Young Master Loriols will be you, Ilina.”
“What nonsense are you talking? Why would I be the culprit?”
“Crown Prince Ruans wants it that way. You haven’t forgotten, have you? Who was it that wanted Young Master Loriols to be the villain and Madame Ann the villainess in the Honor Duel incident?”
Ilina knew. Because when she sent someone to ask Young Master Loriols who he gave the ‘letter’ to, the answer was clearly ‘the Crown Prince’.
But she couldn’t ask Ruans. She was afraid of hearing ‘yes’ from him. She was terrified.
It felt like the moment she asked, she would be abandoned.
Ilina. I love you.
Although she believed in the love Ruans whispered, she lived anxiously and impatiently every day due to her unease. Even when receiving people’s praise and admiration, she couldn’t carry herself with the same confidence as before. She was so anxious and fearful about when the ‘letter’ would be made public. The moment the letter is revealed, she would lose her honor. A noble without honor is as good as dead.
“How does the letter being publicized make me the culprit?”
“The culprit’s motive was that they needed to retrieve the letter sent to Young Master Loriols.”
“You’re saying Crown Prince Ruans wanted me to be the culprit?”
“Think about it. With the Poll Heredian Count’s business failing, Madame Ann dead, and you, Ilina, having stepped down from your position as the flower of society, would Crown Prince Ruans truly need you?”
“Impossible. Don’t try to drive a wedge between us!”
“To tell you the truth, Crown Prince Ruans killed Young Master Loriols over losing the Honor Duel. He made it look like a robber’s work, but it seems closing the case isn’t easy because His Imperial Highness Crown Prince Adrian is personally trying to catch the culprit. So, he came up with the idea of pinning the crime of killing Loriols on you, Ilina. The motive is sufficient if you killed him over the letter and to silence him about it.”
“No. He told me he loves me. He wouldn’t abandon me.”
“Ilina. I love you too.”
Lorencia said affectionately.
“Don’t lie!”
“I have sincerely forgiven you, who tormented me so terribly, and decided to love you.”
Ilina’s body trembled slightly.
“Why are you telling me this?”
“Because I am the ‘hammer’ that strikes down the hunting dog’s head.”
“Hammer?”
“In short, Ilina, you are Crown Prince Ruans’s hunting dog.”
Ilina shook her head.
“The hunting dog, Ilina, barks and hunts for her master, and got hurt while hunting. The injured hunting dog might think her master will care for her, but the master is about to throw the injured dog, who can’t even hunt anymore, into a pot to boil. Unaware of this, the dog sees the pot and mistakenly thinks the master is boiling meat for her, wagging her tail until the very moment of death, right?”
“You’re saying I’m a hunting dog?”
“Yes. And I am the hammer with which Crown Prince Ruans strikes down the hunting dog’s head.”
Ilina glared fiercely at Lorencia.
“Upon realizing she’s been betrayed, will the hunting dog bite her master before getting into the pot? Or will she obediently enter the pot?”
“Stop spouting nonsense!”
“For your information, Crown Prince Ruans answered my question by saying he would strike the hunting dog dead with the hammer first, and then put it in the pot.”
“I am not some hunting dog! I am his lover! I believe in Crown Prince Ruans’s love.”
She only wanted the ending where Ruans becomes the Crown Prince, she becomes the Crown Princess, and they live happily ever after.
“Love won’t take responsibility for your life, Ilina. Not even for your honor and life itself.”
Ilina shouted at them to leave and threw a fruit from the table at Lorencia.
Tayshar deftly caught the thrown fruit, then used his hands to frame Lorencia’s face, checking both cheeks.
“Fortunately, you are unharmed.”
“Of course, I wouldn’t get hit. You blocked it for me…”
Lorencia smiled, reached out towards Tayshar’s face, and gently cupped his reddened cheek.
“Thank you for protecting me, Marquis Spencer.”
Tayshar’s gaze turned toward Ilina. Ilina, meeting his gaze filled with anger in his crimson eyes, glared back and bit her lower lip hard enough to draw blood.
“If you harm the Lady Lorencia even once more, I will not let it slide in the name of the House of Marquis Spencer, Lady of the House of Poll Heredian.”
Ilina’s gaze, full of hostility, slowly turned toward Lorencia.
“What would a monster like you know? How could someone like you understand love? I believe in Crown Prince Ruans’s love. It’s my everything, I’ve staked everything on that love.”
“Ilina. As you said, I am the ugly monster who doesn’t know love.”
“I thought living in the Imperial Palace might have made you forget you’re a monster, but I’m glad you know your place.”
Ilina sneered.
“But, Ilina. Do you also know that this monster can be as cruel as it wants?”
“What?”
“Aren’t you curious? How cruel the monster you mentioned, the one who doesn’t know love, can become?”
Ilina’s face stiffened. Seeing this, Lorencia gave a small smile.
“Why are you making such a frightened face? It’s not like you, Ilina.”
“Haven’t you had your revenge on me enough? Why are you doing this to me!”
“You think I’ve taken revenge on you? Ilina. I don’t want anything like revenge.”
“Don’t lie.”
At her words, the smile vanished from Lorencia’s face.
“Ilina. I have done nothing to you. Think about it.”
“What am I supposed to think about?”
“I have never harmed you. On the contrary, you were the one who abused me. Have you forgotten?”
“No, if only you had never existed! If that filthy illegitimate child had never been born! None of this would have happened to me. You are the cause of all my misfortune. Lorencia.”
Ilina stubbornly refused to accept Lorencia’s words.
